Remaking American Theater: Charles Mee, Anne Bogart and the SITI Company (Cambridge Studies in American Theatre and Drama)
Cambridge University Press, 12/8/2006
EAN 9780521178433, ISBN10: 0521178436
Paperback, 342 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm
Language: English
An account of contemporary theater practice in its most collaborative and dynamic form, this 2006 book was the first book-length study of two of the most important American theater artists at the start of the twenty-first century. For twenty-five years, Mee and Bogart have pursued independent but sympathetic visions of theater rooted in the avant-garde of the 1960s, guided by a view of art and culture as a perpetual process of 'remaking'. Since 1992, the SITI Company has pioneered the unique combination of three training practices as the basis for collective creations that layer language, gesture, and image in a complex and often stunning fashion. This study provides both a general introduction to Mee's unorthodox playwriting, Bogart's innovative directing, and the ensemble work of the SITI Company and an in-depth case study of their work together on bobrauschenbergamerica, a piece inspired by the art of Robert Rauschenberg.
Introduction
of hiccups and fireflies
Part I. A Playwright, a Director, and a Company
1. Mee
from accidental historian to citizen playwright
2. Bogart
engendering space, or building a nest
3. Mee
putting on the Greeks
4. SITI
from toga to 'new toga' and beyond
5. SITI
the trainings (Suzuki, Viewpoints, Composition)
6. Two metadramas
Bogart's Cabin Pressure and Mee's Full Circle
Part II. The Making of bobrauschenbergamerica
7. Preliminaries
facing Rauschenberg, making lists, collecting stuff
8. Summer 2000
messing around in Saratoga Springs
9. Fall 2000
getting ready in New York
10. Winter 2001
rehearsing in Louisville
11. Spring 2001
the play in performance
12. bobrauschenbergamerica forever
Appendices. A. bobrauschenbergamerica
personnel and performance history
B. SITI Company
production history
C. Charles L. Mee
plays and productions
D. Postscript
an email from Betty Bernhard.